Tourism officials say Canada’s new vaccination rules are a good start, but that the government hasn’t gone nearly far enough to boost the travel industry. The Tourism Industry Association of Ontario (TIAO), the Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable and the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB) put out statements saying more moves are needed. “As the pandemic has evolved and new tools have emerged to control the impact of COVID-19, TIAO has been advocating for government to remove barriers to travel,” officials said. “TIAO welcomes today’s announcement as an important step towards normalizing travel; it will help increase inter-provincial travel Read more
Tourism Industry Association of Canada
Tourism Weeks kicked off in Ottawa today. Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, Beth Potter, President and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC), and the Parliamentary Tourism Caucus officially launched National Tourism Week at a press conference in the nation’s capital. For more than 10 years, Tourism Week has been presented by TIAC to encourage all tourism partners to come together to celebrate tourism as vital to the Canadian economy and to the social and cultural fabric of communities across the nation. The seven-day awareness campaign invites private- and public-sector partners in Canada Read more
Today is a day to celebrate for Canadian travellers, and for anyone wishing to visit Canada. But it’ll be even better two weeks from now. The Canadian government today (March 17) announced that mandatory border tests for fully vaccinated residents and visitors will be dropped as of April 1. That means Canadians can travel out of the country and not have to worry about finding an expensive COVID-19 test. They also don’t have to worry that they’ll be denied entry to the country because of a positive test result. It also means foreign visitors can avoid pricey tests Read more
The Coalition of the Hardest Hit Businesses is calling on the Government of Canada to take immediate action to save the tourism industry in Canada, which was the first hit by the pandemic and will be the last to recover. Businesses are urgently calling on the government to remove barriers at the border, maintain and extend the Tourism and Recovery Hospitality Program (THRP) support program and help the sector attract the workforce it needs to recover. The impact of the pandemic on these businesses has been relentless. The industry’s small business owners have depleted their savings, cut costs to the Read more
Ontario border city mayors and Canadian tourism groups are asking the Trudeau government to abolish COVID-19 testing at Canada and border crossings. Mayors of Windsor, Niagara Falls and Sarnia in Ontario and Niagara Falls, N.Y, the Tourism Industry Association of Canada and the Hotel Association of Canada held a news conference to discuss the issue today, the CBC reports. Starting Monday, February 28, fully vaccinated Canadians and visitors coming into Canada will be able to show a negative result from a rapid antigen test, rather than an expensive, PCR or molecular-style test. It’s an improvement, but tourism officials still worry it will keep Read more
